Bomhard - Prehistoric Language Contact on the Steppes: The Case of Indo-European and Northwest Caucasian (corrected 25 March 2025) (2025)

THE ORIGINS OF PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN: THE CAUCASIAN SUBSTRATE HYPOTHESIS

There have been numerous attempts to find relatives of Proto-Indo-European, not the least of which is the Indo-Uralic Hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Uralic are alleged to descend from a common ancestor. However, attempts to prove this hypothesis have run into numerous difficulties. One difficulty concerns the inability to reconstruct the ancestral morphological system in detail, and another concerns the rather small shared vocabulary. This latter problem is further complicated by the fact that many scholars think in terms of borrowing rather than inheritance. Moreover, the lack of agreement in vocabulary affects the ability to establish viable sound correspondences and rules of combinability. This paper will attempt to show that these and other difficulties are caused, at least in large part, by the question of the origins of the Indo-European parent language. Evidence will be presented to demonstrate that Proto-Indo-European is the result of the imposition of a Eurasiatic language — to use Greenberg's term — on a population speaking one or more primordial Northwest Caucasian languages.

Bomhard - The Origins of Proto-Indo-European: The Caucasian Substrate Hypothesis (JIES, Volume 47, Numbers 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2019; pre-print)

Jounral of Indo-European Studies, 2019

There have been numerous attempts to find relatives of Proto-Indo-European, not the least of which is the Indo-Uralic Hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Uralic are alleged to descend from a common ancestor. However, attempts to prove this hypothesis have run into numerous difficulties. One difficulty concerns the inability to reconstruct the ancestral morphological system in detail, and another concerns the rather small shared vocabulary. This latter problem is further complicated by the fact that many scholars think in terms of borrowing rather than inheritance. Moreover, the lack of agreement in vocabulary affects the ability to establish viable sound correspondences and rules of combinability. This paper will attempt to show that these and other difficulties are caused, at least in large part, by the question of the origins of the Indo-European parent language. Evidence will be presented to demonstrate that Proto-Indo-European is the result of the imposition of a Eurasiatic language-to use Greenberg's term-on a population speaking one or more primordial Northwest Caucasian languages.

DID INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES STEM FROM A TRANS-EURASIAN ORIGINAL LANGUAGE? AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH 01-24

Sccientific Culture, 2022

This interdisciplinary study allowed me to establish, on the basis of linguistic, genetic, archaeological, historical and religious data, that linguistic concordances between Gaulish and Slavic were linked with Neolithic migrations from NorthWestern India and Pakistan to Iran, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, the Caucasus, the North of the Black Sea, Danubic and Balkan Europe, Gaul and Iberia, where Neolithic farmers contributed to the formation of the megalithic civilisation which developed in Gaul from 5,000 BCE and brought an archaic language stemming from a Trans-Eurasian original language. This explains the linguistic concordances I established between Gaulish and Dravidian languages-250 common words from the 500 words I studied (and 160 with Burushaski), as well as with Altaic, Uralic, Kartvelian, Anatolian and Middle-Eastern languages. This also explains similarities I have found in the organisation of the Society and religion, which lead certain researchers to suggest, on the basis of the spread of the very ancient haplogroup H2 P-96 from India to Western Europe, that first Europeans and proto-Dravidians had a very ancient common origin, as macrohaplogroup F and haplogroup H Y-DNA could appear in India, as well as haplogroup C Y-DNA, found in Vinča, and Central Asian haplogroups F, K, P, Q Y-DNA were found in Europe at significant frequencies from Serbia and Croatia to France and Great Britain, which pleads for a Central Asian origin of Gauls, Celts and Balkan peoples.

DID INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES STEM FROM A TRANS-EURASIAN ORIGINAL LANGUAGE? AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH 03-24

Scientific Culture, 2022

This interdisciplinary study allowed me to establish, on the basis of linguistic, genetic, archaeological, historical and religious data, that linguistic concordances between Gaulish and Slavic were linked with Neolithic migrations from NorthWestern India and Pakistan to Iran, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, the Caucasus, the North of the Black Sea, Danubic and Balkan Europe, Gaul and Iberia, where Neolithic farmers contributed to the formation of the megalithic civilisation which developed in Gaul from 5,000 BCE and brought an archaic language stemming from a Trans-Eurasian original language. This explains the linguistic concordances I established between Gaulish and Dravidian languages-250 common words from the 500 words I studied (and 160 with Burushaski), as well as with Altaic, Uralic, Kartvelian, Anatolian and Middle-Eastern languages. This also explains similarities I have found in the organisation of the Society and religion, which lead certain researchers to suggest, on the basis of the spread of the very ancient haplogroup H2 P-96 from India to Western Europe, that first Europeans and proto-Dravidians had a very ancient common origin, as macrohaplogroup F and haplogroup H Y-DNA could appear in India, as well as haplogroup C Y-DNA, found in Vinča, and Central Asian haplogroups F, K, P, Q Y-DNA were found in Europe at significant frequencies from Serbia and Croatia to France and Great Britain, which pleads for a Central Asian origin of Gauls, Celts and Balkan peoples.

DID INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES STEM FROM A TRANS-EURASIAN ORIGINAL LANGUAGE? AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH

Scientific Culture, 2022

This interdisciplinary study, published in Scientific Culture, journal supported by the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, allowed me to establish, on the basis of linguistic, genetic, archaeological, historical and religious data, that linguistic concordances between Gaulish and Slavic were linked with Neolithic migrations from NorthWestern India and Pakistan to Iran, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, the Caucasus, the North of the Black Sea, Danubic and Balkan Europe, Gaul and Iberia, where Neolithic farmers contributed to the formation of the megalithic civilisation which developed in Gaul from 5.000 BC and brought an archaic language stemming from a Trans-Eurasian original language. This explains the linguistic concordances I established between Gaulish and Dravidian languages-250 common words from the 500 words I studied (and 160 with Burushaski), as well as with Altaic, Uralic, Kartvelian, Anatolian and Middle-Eastern languages. This also explains similarities I have found in the organisation of the Society and religion, which lead certain researchers to suggest, on the basis of the spread of the very ancient haplogroup H2 P-96 from India to Western Europe, that first Europeans and proto-Dravidians had a very ancient common origin, as the macrohaplogroup F and the haplogroup H could appear in India.

DID INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES STEM FROM A TRANS-EURASIAN ORIGINAL LANGUAGE? AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH 07-24

Scientific Culture, 2022

This interdisciplinary study allowed me to establish, on the basis of linguistic, genetic, archaeological, historical and religious data, that linguistic concordances between Gaulish and Slavic were linked with Neolithic migrations from NorthWestern India and Pakistan to Iran, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, the Caucasus, the North of the Black Sea, Danubic and Balkan Europe, Gaul and Iberia, where Neolithic farmers contributed to the formation of the megalithic civilisation which developed in Gaul from 5,000 BCE and brought an archaic language stemming from a Trans-Eurasian original language. This explains the linguistic concordances I established between Gaulish and Dravidian languages-250 common words from the 500 words I studied (and 160 with Burushaski), as well as with Altaic, Uralic, Kartvelian, Anatolian and Middle-Eastern languages. This also explains similarities I have found in the organisation of the Society and religion, which lead certain researchers to suggest, on the basis of the spread of the very ancient haplogroup H2 P-96 from India to Western Europe, that first Europeans and proto-Dravidians had a very ancient common origin, as macrohaplogroup F and haplogroup H Y-DNA could appear in India, as well as haplogroup C Y-DNA, found in Vinča, and Central Asian haplogroups F, K, P, Q Y-DNA were found in Europe at significant frequencies from Serbia and Croatia to France and Great Britain, which pleads for a Central Asian origin of Gauls, Celts and Balkan peoples.

DID INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES STEM FROM A TRANS-EURASIAN ORIGINAL LANGUAGE? AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH 12-23

Scientific Culture, 2022

This interdisciplinary study allowed me to establish, on the basis of linguistic, genetic, archaeological, historical and religious data, that linguistic concordances between Gaulish and Slavic were linked with Neolithic migrations from NorthWestern India and Pakistan to Iran, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, the Caucasus, the North of the Black Sea, Danubic and Balkan Europe, Gaul and Iberia, where Neolithic farmers contributed to the formation of the megalithic civilisation which developed in Gaul from 5,000 BCE and brought an archaic language stemming from a Trans-Eurasian original language. This explains the linguistic concordances I established between Gaulish and Dravidian languages-250 common words from the 500 words I studied (and 160 with Burushaski), as well as with Altaic, Uralic, Kartvelian, Anatolian and Middle-Eastern languages. This also explains similarities I have found in the organisation of the Society and religion, which lead certain researchers to suggest, on the basis of the spread of the very ancient haplogroup H2 P-96 from India to Western Europe, that first Europeans and proto-Dravidians had a very ancient common origin, as the macrohaplogroup F and the haplogroup H could appear in India, as well as haplogroup C, found in Vinča.

DID INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES STEM FROM A TRANS-EURASIAN ORIGINAL LANGUAGE? AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH 10-23

Scientific Culture, 2022

This interdisciplinary study allowed me to establish, on the basis of linguistic, genetic, archaeological, historical and religious data, that linguistic concordances between Gaulish and Slavic were linked with Neolithic migrations from NorthWestern India and Pakistan to Iran, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, the Caucasus, the North of the Black Sea, Danubic and Balkan Europe, Gaul and Iberia, where Neolithic farmers contributed to the formation of the megalithic civilisation which developed in Gaul from 5,000 BCE and brought an archaic language stemming from a Trans-Eurasian original language. This explains the linguistic concordances I established between Gaulish and Dravidian languages-250 common words from the 500 words I studied (and 160 with Burushaski), as well as with Altaic, Uralic, Kartvelian, Anatolian and Middle-Eastern languages. This also explains similarities I have found in the organisation of the Society and religion, which lead certain researchers to suggest, on the basis of the spread of the very ancient haplogroup H2 P-96 from India to Western Europe, that first Europeans and proto-Dravidians had a very ancient common origin, as the macrohaplogroup F and the haplogroup H could appear in India.

Bomhard - Additional Proto-Indo-European/Northwest Caucasian Lexical Parallels (2019)

Palaeogenetics: what can it tell linguists about Indo-European languages

Wékwos n°7, 2024

This article assesses the contribution of palaeogenetics for linguists in determining the origin and spread of Indo-European languages. Since 2015 and the revelation of a vast migration during the Final Neolithic from the Ponto-Caspian steppe to Europe and Central Asia through the archaeological Pit Grave (Yamna), Corded Ware and Bell Beaker cultures, palaeogenetics has provided successive layers of information to archaeologists and linguists. The study proposes an original homeland in the Ponto-Caspian steppe no later than 4000 BC, as well as the dating and location of the secondary homelands of most of the branches and directions for further research into the model.

Proto-Indo-Europeans: The Prologue

Journal of Indo-European Studies, vol. 47 (3-4), pp.293-380, 2019

Bomhard - Additional Proto-Indo-European/Northwest Caucasian Lexical Parallels: Supplement 1 (2020)

More remote relationships of Proto-Indo-European

Jared Klein, Brian Joseph, and Matthias Fritz (eds.), Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics 3, pp. 2280-2292. Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft 41/3. Berlin - Boston, MA., 2018

and Uralic are the two largest language families in Europe, it is no wonder that they have long been compared with one another (see Joki 1973: 3-243).

DID INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES STEM FROM A TRANS-EURASIAN ORIGINAL LANGUAGE? AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH LES LANGUES INDO-EUROPEENNES SONT-ELLES ISSUES D'UNE LANGUE ORIGINELLE TRANS-EURASIENNE ? UNE APPROCHE INTERDISCIPLINAIRE

SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, 2022

This interdisciplinary study allowed me to establish, on the basis of linguistic, genetic, archaeological, historical and religious data, that linguistic concordances between Gaulish and Slavic were linked with Neolithic migrations from NorthWestern India and Pakistan to Iran, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, the Caucasus, the North of the Black Sea, Danubic and Balkan Europe, Gaul and Iberia, where Neolithic farmers contributed to the formation of the megalithic civilisation which developed in Gaul from 5.000 BC and brought an archaic language stemming from a Trans-Eurasian original language. This explains the linguistic concordances I established between Gaulish and Dravidian languages-250 common words from the 500 words I studied (and 160 with Burushaski), as well as with Altaic, Uralic, Kartvelian, Anatolian and Middle-Eastern languages. This also explains similarities I have found in the organisation of the Society and religion, which lead certain researchers to suggest, on the basis of the spread of the very ancient haplogroup H2 P-96 from India to Western Europe, that first Europeans and proto-Dravidians had an ancient common origin, as the macrohaplogroups F and K, from which stem all European haplogroups, and the haplogroup H could appear in India. Cette étude interdisciplinaire m’a permis de démontrer, sur la base de données linguistiques, génétiques, archéologiques, historiques et religieuses, que les correspondances linguistiques entre le gaulois et le slave étaient liées à des migrations Néolithiques d’Inde et du Pakistan du Nord-Ouest vers l’Iran, la Mésopotamie, l’Anatolie, le Caucase, le Nord de la Mer Noire, l’Europe danubienne et balkanique, la Gaule et l’Ibérie, où les agriculteurs néolithiques ont contribué à former la civilisation mégalithique qui s’est développée en Gaule à partir de -5.000 et apporté une langue archaïque issue d’une langue originelle trans-eurasienne. Cela explique les correspondances linguistiques que j’ai établies entre le gaulois et les langues dravidiennes - 250 mots communs sur les 500 mots étudiés (et 160 avec le bourouchaski), ainsi qu’avec les langues altaïques, ouraliennes, karvéliennes, anatoliennes et moyen-orientales. Cela explique aussi les similitudes constatées dans l’organisation de la société et la religion, qui amènent certains chercheurs à suggérer, sur la base de la diffusion du très ancien haplogroupe H2 P-96 de l’Inde à l’Europe de l’Ouest, que les premiers Européens et les proto-Dravidiens avaient une origine commune très ancienne, les macro-haplogroupes F et K, desquels descendent tous les haplogroupes européens, et l’haplogroupe H ayant pu apparaitre en Inde.

Fresh views on the early history of Indo-European and its relation to Uralic

Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen, 2020

Review of Kloekhorst, Alwin & Pronk, Tijmen (eds.). 2019. The precursors of Proto-Indo-European: The Indo-Anatolian and Indo-Uralic hypotheses (Leiden Studies in Indo-European 21). Leiden & Boston: Brill.

The deep roots of Eurasian and Indo-European languages

I started my research work on the origin of Gauls and Gaulish language in 2020. My main study DID INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES STEM FROM A TRANS-EURASIAN ORIGINAL LANGUAGE? AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH was published in Scientific culture in 2022 and reached more than 9,000 reads on Scientific Culture, Academia and ResearchGate. I was also invited to present my research work in a poster presentation at the World Neolithic Congress 2024, which already reached 2,041 reads on Academia and ResearchGate. In this short paper, I will present the main conclusions of my book "Gauls from the East", compiling my most read interdisciplinary studies about the origin of Gaulish language. I hope this book, which already reached 7,700 reads on Academia and ResearchGate, will help readers to better apprehend my theory.

Introduction: Reconstructing Proto-Indo-Anatolian and Proto-Indo-Uralic

The Precursors of Proto-Indo-European: The Indo-Anatolian and Indo-Uralic Hypotheses (Alwin Kloekhorst & Tijmen Pronk, eds.). Leiden-Boston: Brill., 2019

Like any other natural language, the mother language of the Indo-European language family did not originate out of nothing. It must have developed, as a result of linguistic changes, from an earlier language, which in turn must have developed from an even earlier language, and so on. It is therefore legitimate to ask whether anything meaningful can be said about the nature of these precursors of Proto-Indo-European. The answer to this question naturally depends on wheter relatives from outside the Indo-European language family can be identified and, if so, whether there are enough similarities with Proto-Indo-European to set up hypothetical etymologies that can be used to reconstruct a common proto-language.

The Origins of Indo-European Languages

Scientific American, 1989

Did Indo-European Languages Stem From a Trans-Eurasian Original Language

Academia Letters, 2021

In my study The Odyssey of Gauls and Slavs from NorthWestern India to Europe, I conclude, on the basis of linguistic, genetic and archaeological studies that the peopling of Europe took place from N-W India, Pakistan, Iran, the Caucasus and Anatolia, creating a proto-Indo-Mediterranean culture. These studies give credit to the linguistic matches I found between Gaulish, Slavic, Dravidian and Burushaski (250 Dravidian and 160 Burushaski words out of 500 Gaulish/Slavic words). A study published in Science, Mapping the Origins and Expansion of the Indo-European Language Family, also tends to strengthen this theory. It states that there are two competing hypotheses for the origin of the Indo-European language family. The conventional view places the homeland in the Pontic steppes about 6000 years ago. An alternative hypothesis claims that these languages spread from Anatolia with the expansion of farming 8000 to 9500 years ago. Using Bayesian phylogeographic approaches, together with basic vocabulary data from 103 ancient and contemporary Indo-European languages to model the expansion of the family and test these hypotheses, this study concludes in a decisive support to an Anatolian origin over a steppe origin, as both the inferred timing and root location of the Indo-European language trees fit with an agricultural expansion from Anatolia beginning 8000 to 9500 years ago. A map from this study clearly places the origin of Indo-Iranian languages between NorthWestern India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Caspian Sea and Zagros, which would be for me the original homeland of Dravidian and Indo-European languages, and shows close links between Indo-Iranian, Caucasian and Anatolian languages, which clearly plead for a formation of Indo-European languages in this region from before 8.000 BC, according to the dates indicated in this study. This theory could be also attested by the interesting Burushaski language of Northern Pakistan which, according to Michael Witzel's study Origin and Development of Language in South Asia: Phylogeny Versus Epigenetics? mixes features

AREAL TYPOLOGY OF PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN: THE CASE FOR CAUCASIAN CONNECTIONS

This paper reexamines the evidence for early contacts between Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and the languages of the Caucasus. Although we were not able to find certain proofs of lexical borrowing between PIE and North Caucasian, there are a few undeniable areal-typological parallels in phonology and grammar. Some features generally attributed to PIE are not found in the majority of languages of North and Northeastern Eurasia, while they are common, or universally present, in the languages of the Caucasus (especially North Caucasus). Those features include the high consonant-to-vowel ratio, tonal accent, number suppletion in personal pronouns, the presence of gender and the morphological optative and, possibly, the presence of glottalized consonants and ergativity.